Yes, I am an airman. I'm not a soldier, I'm not a troop, I am an Airman. A Senior Airman to be exact. Thats E-4 for all the people who've spent enough time in the Big Machine to know what all that means,

I first visited the recruiters office in the summer of 02. I went on to meps, and was held up for a while, because I had to get a waiver for my bad knee. (Had knee surgery back when I was seventeen.) I got the greenlight, and left for basic training in June of 2003.

Basic was weird. It wasn't physically demanding. The absolute truth is you can do a lot more then you think you can when you have scary people yelling at you, making you do it. Fear is a strong motivator. I'm pretty certain that if I had a choice between stop running, and drop dead on the track, I'd have probably dropped dead. It wasn't that much of a mental challenge, once you figured out the head games involved, the tests aren't that challenging. It was mostly an emotional challenge. Getting over the frustration of knowing that what you do will never be good enough. Getting over you're own paranoia. Repressing all your nervous tendencies, (I had about a million, and I only knew about half of them) and getting the rest of the flight your side. My most memorable moment is still the first time I called my mom. Well, that and the time a kid passed out in the latrine from heat exhaustion and busted his head wide open while I happened to be standing dorm guard duty. I thought he was dead, for sure. There was also the guy who'd pray at the top of his lungs in his sleep, and the suicidal kid. (He graduated and became a Security Forces troop, figure that one out.)

After basic came two months of Electronics principles at Keesler AFB Mississippi. The weekdays were the suck, nothing like marching in 100+ temps in 90+ humidity in dress blues while carrying your airforce trenchcoat (I can't even remember the official name. To me, its a trench coat) because someone had decided that it rained enough to make it an item required for carry. The weekends were pretty nifty though, I'd walk down to the beech at night and walk along the coast. When the pictures from Hurricane Katrina came out, I recognized alot of destroyed stuff. I'm going to have to go down thier someday just to see what the place looks like now.

After two months of EP, I caught a plane and went to Vandenberg AFB in California for my real techschool, Airlaunched Missile Maintenance. I'm a southern boy, spent my whole childhood in Kentucky and Tennessee, and had only heard various rumors about California. Turns out that California does have a backwoods area, it just happens to be where they stuck the Air Force base. I also discovered that satellites getting launched into orbit make a heck of a racket, especially when you're sleeping. I went to Los Angeles a few times, and was probably lucky not to have gotten shot/stabbed/robbed/raped, etc and so forth.

After graduating ALMM school, I came to Barksdale AFB LA. I'm still here. I darted out for a quick 2 month class in electronic check out equipment at Vandenberg, but so far I've spent all time at Barksdale working on cruise missiles. From April of 04 to now. I've volunteered multiple times for multiple TDYs to such exotic places as Anderson AFB Guam, Diego Garcia BIOT, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, and Afghanistan. I've never been selected. I did get selected for a Diego Garcia TDY, but then the TDY was first postponed, and then cancelled. Right now my dream sheet says "Conus, anywhere" and "OCONUS: anywhere." According to the chain, the only slots that are going to open up anytime soon are permanent change of station slots to Minot. North Dakota! I'm really hoping I don't get orders to Minot, I don't do good in cold climates.

So yeah I'm a Senior Airman, Missile and Space Systems Electronics Maintenane Journeyman at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.

Those rare compulsive purchases

Well, I got another one. Bought the Glock 19 off a buddy of mine. It came with four magazines, (two 15 rounders, two 10 rounders) a speedloader, a holster, and a pistol pouch. Pretty nice if I don't say so myself.

My cute little Armory

I figured I'd throw up some pictures of my guns,
Heres' my entire arsenal, minus my latest rifle. I've owned the swords since I was a teenager. The Klingon looking thingamajiggy was a gift from one of my exegirlfriends. The rifle on top is my 1922 Mosin Nagant 91/30. The other one is my AR-15. Its a Bushmaster A2 Upper assembly fitted to an M-4 lower assembly. The three pistols are (From left to right) my Rock Island Armory 1911, my FegArms PA-63 in 9mm Makarov, and my Keltec P-11. The picture also features a Russian spamcan full of 7.62x54R ammo for the Mosin, and a sample of all my assorted calibers.

Heres a closer look, from left to right is 7.62x54R, 5.56Nato, 45ACP, 9mm Luger, 9mm Makarov, and 22LR. Sorry its all blurrylike.

The last picture is of all my rifles boxed up in my range case. The one in the middle is my latest. That my freinds, is a Lee Enfield No4Mk1 made in 1946 if I remember right. The wood is in pretty rough condition, but the steel is good, and the action is a piece of beauty. The sling, bayo and oiler both came with the Mosin, along with a magpouch that isn't in the picture. Unfortunately the Enfield only came with its magazine.

So for a recap, I own three pistols, and three rifles. I'm in the middle of negotiating with a buddy for a well used Glock19, and I have plans for other weapons but first I have to pay off the bills and save up money.

Lots to do, little time for anything else

Its turning out to be a busy week, and weekend at work. So much for making a bunch of posts. I'll see what I can do, but I promise nothing.

An appendum to the previous post

I'd figured I'd add some stuff to explain the last post, and what exactly it entails.

First of all, the post is not an excuse for the way modern men act. If anything, its a scathing review. No, I'm not trying to blame women for mens problems. The men themselves are to blame. I'm not making excuses, I'm not blaming women. I'm explaining a small part of what went wrong American families.

Secondly, there are some women who'd read that post and say something to the effect of "Thats not what what the feminist movement meant when they said "We're tired of being treated like property." "

Of course thats not what women mean when they say "I don't want to be treated like "your woman". The thing is, men aren't too good at nuances. We're kind of bad at hints in case you didn't notice. We don't do well with subtlety either. We are good at following exact instructions. If you tell a man to do something, he will generally do it. Exactly as you say it. If you say 'The trash in the kitchen stinks, take it out." he will indeed take out the trash. The trash in the kitchen, that is. Just don't be surprised if he doesn't take out the bathroom trash, the living trash, the bedroom trash, or any other trash in the house either. Also don't be surprised if he puts the bag in the bin outside, but doesn't move the bin over to the curb for tomorrows trash pickup. In the Airforce, its a common condition among the lower ranks. If you tell an A1C to do something, he will do exactly what you say. No more, no less. If you tell him to clean a room, he'll do it. But he'll leave the broom closet in a mess, and drip Lord knows what on the floor to and from that room.

So women said "I don't want to treated like some mans personal property." and a bunch of men listened. They did exactly that. They quit caring if their girlfriend wasn't happy. They being responsible for what the kids did, or whether or not the kids were being good. As far as they were concerned, the woman could fix her own problems, and the kids belonged to her.

Now, if you still don't like what I've had to say, too bad. If you just read this, and are confused, then read the post below. All of it.

Feminism: Who it really liberated

I'll warn you now, this post has the potential to offend. Send all hate mail directly to me. I don't care. I only ask that if you do start reading this, you have the forethought to finish it. All of it, yes I know its long, yes I know you'll probably be mad. Just trust me on this, read the entire post.
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I was pondering womens liberty today, along with basic gender roles, the adaptability of the human race, the laws of unintended consequences, so forth and so on.

In some ways, I am a feminist. I'm also a masculinist. I am primarily an Individualist.

Here's one of the things that many women don't understand about men. We don't do communal property. There are things that are mine, and things that aren't mine. I take care of my stuff, everything else can go to hell for all I care.

Perfect example, look at restrooms. Go to any church, any company with a decent number of female employees, go to my shop in the airforce, and you will notice something. Mens restrooms are typically disgusting. Even if they are clean, mens restrooms are very impersonal. You will not see any artwork in a mens restroom, unless it installed when the bathroom was built or last renovated. There will be the floor, the ceiling, the walls, the plumbing fixtures, privacy dividers, and possibly a few notes or posts put up by the cleaning crew or corporation. (No Smoking, Clean daily, Employees must wash hands,etc) Womens restrooms however, have a tendency to look nice. Its not just that they're cleaner. They're personalized. Women have potpourri and wicker furniture in their bathrooms, women have decorations and pictures in their bathrooms.

Why? Because the women who usually use that bathroom, consider it to be "their" bathroom. They were the ones who dragged in the furniture and made everything look nice. They chase the cleaning crew around when Their bathroom needs supplies, or a good scrubbing. If there is no cleaning crew, they'll personally clean it and stock it themselves. The men don't do this. Why? Its not because we like having a filthy, cold impersonal bathroom. Its not because we're lazy and slobbish and don't care. The answer is simple. "Its not my bathroom."

You go to my bathroom at home, its decently clean. There is plenty of toilet paper, medicine, and all other assorted supplies I consider necessary. I have blue towels, because I like the color blue. They're color coordinated with the shower curtains, the toothbrush holder, and my shaving mug. I feel disgusted if I walk into my bathroom, and its dirty, I clean it whenever I have the time. If I'm out of something, I shoot out to Wal-mart and get more. And yet, I have no problem using the stinky dirty bathroom at work with the rusted dividers. I steal TP from other stalls, I leave messes. Why? Its not my bathroom.

This theory of ownership carries through to all a mans valuable possessions. The car buffs buy high quality parts for their cars, and wax the paint every weekend. The Computer junky will disassemble his desktop weekly all the way down to the case just blow out every nook and cranny with expensive canned air. Dad will spend all day trimming his lawn, killing the dandelions, weedeating and watering and mulching.

I grew up in a very feminine house. There were doilies on the coffee table, there were pretty pictures in the dining room. The kitchen had pretty floor mats in front of the sink and refrigerator. The bathroom had a stack of maxi pads a foot high next to the toilet. There were only 3 places that didn't follow this trend. My room, The garage, and the smoke house. My room was my room, I decorated how I saw fit, and got mad when mom came into my room and moved my stuff. The garage and the smoke house (It started life in the 40s or 50s as a smokehouse, dad converted it into a utility shed) were dads spaces. As far as mom and sis were concerned, it was "our" house. Our families'. As far as I was concerned (and dad too probably) It was moms house, we just lived there. The only places we owned was our spaces. Mom decided what decorations to hang, mom decided where the furniture went. Granted, it was dad and me that moved it. Mom asked dad once what he thought about it. Dad recommended a different layout to the living room furniture. That was the shortest furniture arrangement in history. Mom didn't like it, so the furniture was moved yet once more.

So heres' the basic idea. Men take care of what they consider to be their personal property. I take care of MY computer. I take care of MY car. I take care of MY guns. Dad took care of HIS kids. Dad loves HIS wife. Mess with my dads wife, or my dads kids, and bad things will happen. Trust me, I've seen my dad mad. The maddest I've ever seen him, was when someone did something he considered wrong concerning, mom, me, or sis. I vaguely considered jumping out of a moving car, it was so scary, and was eternally thankful he wasn't mad at me.

Now, what was the point of modern Feminism? One of the key tenets of modern feminism was to destroy the old patriarchal society. Why? When asked, the feminists would usually say "Because we're tired of being treated like property."

First off, I think the statement is off target by just a quarter of an inch MOA. The true problem was first that women were not being denied basic human rights. The second problem was that women were being treated as an inferior class of citizens. But thats not important, what was important was what was said. "I don't want any man considering me to be his property!"

You see, the women were automatically assuming that a man considers his possessions to be inferior. Men 'own' things for the sake of controlling, exploiting, and eventually destroying them. I'm not saying that in some cases this isn't true. But it is generally not true for an honorable man.

For an honorable man, ownership implies responsibility. If you give an honorable man a dog, he will automatically assume responsibility for the dog. He will feed it, he will give it water. He will pet it, and play with it, and put on his clothes late at night to let it out for a walk. He will let it jump into bed with him late at night if its thundering outside and the dog is scared. His dog is his responsibility. He is committed to its welfare and quality of life.

I don't own a dog right now, but I have before. I take care of my guns, because I may someday have to trust my life to them via self defense. I take care of my car, because I trust it to get me out and about and home safely. If I don't take care of the engine, it may die on me. If I don't take care of the brakes, and the steering, I may wind up getting hurt in an accident.

I've totaled several cars, to the point that I have a farewell ceremony for when I total a vehicle. After all the paperwork is filed, after I've removed my possessions, and signed the wreckage over to the junkyard, I pat the drivers' side pillar and I thank the car for all the memories, for keeping me safe, for letting me walk away from an accident that could have very well injured or killed me.

When you tell a man that you don't want to be treated as property, what you are saying is that you don't want him to think of you as "My girl." or "My woman." or "My wife."

Saying so absolves him of all responsibility to you. He's not responsible for your fiscal wellbeing. He's not responsible for your mental wellbeing. He's not responsible for your emotional wellbeing. He is not responsible for you.

Most of you are probably saying "Well good. Thats the way I want it."

Heres the kicker. If he isn't responsible for it, at least for a tiny, itsy bitsy part of it, he has no reason to care about it. Your problems are your problems. Not his. You fix them. Your unhappiness is your unhappiness, you fix it. If you ain't happy, so what? He has no responsibility to you. You aren't his woman. what does he care?

You're like the neighbor with the ugly yard, and the junk car. "Our neighbors have a nappy yard and a junk car on blocks in their drive way." he says "Yeah, the lazy bum should probably go out and fix his stuff." you say "I'm not happy." he says "Well, fix it." Your not his woman, he has no responsibility to do anything for you.

The sad part for men is, this attitude destroys alot of our own opportunities to be happy. Nothing makes a man happier then taking care of his possessions, of validating his personal qualities via excelling in our personal responsibilities. I feel awesome when I get a promotion, why? I took care of my job. I feel good when my bathroom is clean. Why? Its my bathroom, its my responsibility to clean it, and I did so. Slamming the hood down on a car after you just installed about a grand worth of new parts feels good. Reassembling a thoroughly cleaned gun feels good. Completing the mission feels good.

A man who doesn't take responsibility for "His woman" will never feel good when he sees her smile. He'll never feel feel happy when she succeeds at something she's set her mind to. Its her responsibility. Its her success. He didn't have a thing to do with it. Possession is a transference of responsibility. You carry out that responsibility via commitment. Men who lack a sense of possession lack of a sense of responsibility. Without the sense of responsibility, they are unable to commit to anything.

Why can't women find men who want to commit? Because those men refuse to be responsible for anything save their own possessions. The women these men have met before refused to give them anything to be responsible over. Because they were afraid of transferring ownership of any part of themselves over to a man.

Now lets mix these ideas of Ownership, responsibility, and Commitment to a whole new can of worms. Abortion. The holy of holies of the feminist movement.
Why must women have the right to abortion? "Because Pro life destroys a woman right choose when she is going to procreate." One of my favorite feminist slogans is "Its my body, My choice!" Yes, you are correct, Heres' the thing though

When you say "Its my body, my choice" you are taking full ownership of the entire situation. "My body, my choice." reads to most men as "Her body, her choice, her pregnancy, her abortion, or her baby." You absolve the men involved in your pregnancy of all responsibility, and all commitment. You are the one in charge. Its your responsibility. As a matter of fact, the only entity willing to hold the man responsible, in any way shape or form, is the government. In the form of child support.

So now the man is in a heck of a fun situation. He has no say so or possession of the fetus. Its yours. Since it is your body, and you were the one party risking pregnancy during intercourse, that means any unexpected pregnancy is your fault. "You should have took your birth control! You should have gotten on birth control. You should have insisted on a condom." even if protective measures were in place, the pregnancy is still your problem. You are the one who's pregnant. So now you turn and ask the man "Well, should I get an abortion, or should I carry it to term?" He says "How should I know, its your pregnancy, you decide." Can't blame him much, it is YOUR body, and it is YOUR choice. If he tried to talk you one way or the other, he'd be screwed. If he tells you to get an abortion, he'll be trying to bail out of paying child support. If he tells you to carry it to term, then he's just forcing you to follow his personal political and ethical views. Either way, he has no right to tell you what you can and can't do. He has no experience to help him tell him what he should and shouldn't do. Its all your personal choice.

But this makes everything that much more fun, because now it trigger locks you. Any negative experience is directly your fault. Say you get an abortion, and now you feel guilt and remorse. Not his problem, you were the one who got the abortion. Say you carry to term, and now your undergoing all the stress of being a young first time mother. Not his fault, you could have gotten an abortion.

True fact, if I'm at a buddies house, and he's working on his car, I accept no responsibility for any mistakes he makes. "Man, those wires I bought broke!" Not my fault, he should have bought better quality wires. "Man, These new cables were expensive. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get my turbo kit now." Not my problem either. Its his parts, his car, his project, his problems. I'm just a bystander. I was there, but I had nothing to do with the situation.

The same thing happens to you, the mother. Its your body, its your pregnancy, your choice, your problems. If bad things happen, its not his problem. If you can't handle the emotional baggage of getting an abortion, its not his problem. If being mom stresses you out, its your problem.

Roll into this further by the rule of continuing the trend. If you get pregnant, and your not "His woman" suddenly your pregnancy isn't "his pregnancy" which means that your kids aren't "His kids". As one comedian once said, "I'm only vaguely aware that there are a bunch of short people running around the house." The trend continues. A man who doesn't care about "His woman" won't care about "his wife" nor "His kids".

You didn't transfer any ownership. You didn't transfer any responsibility. He is incapable of committing to anything that isn't his. When you look at him and say "Why don't you take care of your kids?" He's going to say "My kids? Your the one who had them. They're your kids. You could have gotten an abortion."

The only people who gave that father any form of ownership, was the state government, who told him that they were his kids, hes' responsible for keeping them clothed, keeping them fed, and keeping the child support checks rolling.

Funny, notice how many modern day fathers only focus on these areas. Many kids nowadays complain that dad never cared about them, he just cared that they didn't starve, had shoes on their feet, and that the only thing they ever got from their dad was a child support check once a month?

You give a man responsibilities, and he will take care of his responsibilities. Men are graded by their responsibilities. Want to know the difference between a good man and a bad man? Look at what he's responsible for. A good man will take care of his pets, his cars, his guns, his computers, his job. A bad man will not.

As long as that man takes care of that which he has given responsibility for, he will consider himself successful, and will be happy. As long as the grass is mowed, the the dog is fed, the car is running, the computer is running, and the apartment is clean, he will be moderately content.

There was a time when this same rule passed on to wifes and children. Today, that is largely gone. Why? Because women told men that they didn't want a man to think of them as "theirs". Suddenly, a mans woman wasn't his woman. Which meant that his wife isn't his wife. Which meant that his children aren't his children. His family is not his family. His home is not his home.

The modern males in our society did not give up these responsibilities. Quite to the contrary, these responsibilities were never given to them, as a matter of fact these responsibilities were withheld from them. With out the responsibility there can be no commitment.

So who did feminism liberate? The women still have husbands, and boyfriends, and men, and children. They still have homes. They now have jobs. The men, are no longer responsible for their women, thier families, nor their homes.

Feminism liberated men. We're no longer expected to be the husbands we once were. We're no longer expected to be the fathers we once were. We are not expected to head the household like we once were. The only punishment for not taking the responsibilities once given is a taste of social derision from the women who've they've involved themselves with (Like that is a threat. These men are used to women who aren't happy, and blame the women themselves for not being happy) and the old fashioned men who don't understand why a man could just turn his back on what we perceive (And he doesn't) to be his responsibilities.

All is not lost though, there are still a few old fashioned men around. Men who nod and say "yes dear" but still won't truck with anyone hurting "my woman". Men who do their absolute best to make "their woman" happy. Who worry if she isn't happy. Men who will hold a womans hair when she's sick and throwing up. Men who love "Thier children". Men who take care of that which they possess. Its their family, its their wife, their kids, their house. What kind of man doesn't take care of that which he possesses? He puts gas in an empty tank, because its his car and he needs to get to work. He trims the yard, because its his yard and he wants it to look good. He loves his wife, because she's the best thing in his life, and he wants her to be happy, and to know how much he loves her. He takes care of his kids, because he knows that their behavior reflects on him. He wants them to succeed, to be happy. He is proud of them when they succeed, he comforts and encourages them when they fail, and he disciplines them when they do wrong. Not out of anger, not out of spite, but sternly, logically, and with the goal of teaching them a lesson they need to carry with them their entire life.

But as for the rest of my gender, they've slipped their bonds, and are free to roam. They are children in the summer. They have no responsibilities, no commitments, no worries. They aren't truly happy, children still cry no matter how nice the weather, they still pout no matter how big the playground, no matter how long the day. They'll never truly be happy. They'll play with their toys until they die, having never grown up, never graduated to something better then a faster car, a bigger hard-drive, and a prettier apartment, a quicker computer. But they are free. Free to be children with no responsibilities, no commitments. Nothing to drag them down.

What a fascinating turn of events. What a tragedy.

I figure its time to introduce myself. I've spent a good amount of time writing side blogs at other websites. Places like online diaries, bolt.com (now gone) myspace and facebook. I figured it was time to crack open a can of creativeness and make a dedicated blog.

More is soon to come, just as soon as I root through my stuff and find all I want to put here. I'm sure to write up some original stuff for this site, but first I'll probably copypaste some of my older things.

As far as what kinds of topics to expect, I plan on posting my opinions on guns, politics, faith, WW2 history, military technology, and I might throw in some creative writings and current events just for fun.